


among the flowers of the meadow

by neon



Category: Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Inspired by Hades and Persephone (Ancient Greek Religion & Lore), M/M, Outdoor Sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-03
Updated: 2021-03-07
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:48:42
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27363775
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/neon/pseuds/neon
Summary: Persephone glided closer on bare toes, his low greeting carried by the breeze. "You seek something, do you… stranger?"By the cliffside he was a shadow against the bright sea and sky, waiting among the flowers of Persephone’s meadow. As pale as marble his skin was, mantled by pure black that split aside and left bare his sculpted shoulders and chest. In tufts of windswept, white hair sat his jagged crown of dark, brittle stone. When he turned, he did so with unthought of grace. His face unlike all other features looked young, and carefully guarded.Before he would speak, Persephone rest a finger to his cold lips. And pressed his back to the earth.
Relationships: Andrea Rhodea/Cloud Strife
Comments: 6
Kudos: 11
Collections: Rhifealachian AUs





	1. among the flowers of the meadow

**Author's Note:**

> If you enjoy this, please also check out CervusDeer's Hades/Persephone Rhife fic, [A Quiet Heart](https://archiveofourown.org/works/27114430). Thank you to CervusDeer and EvaNyxx and the discord for playing in the sandbox of this AU.

Persephone glided closer on bare toes, his low greeting carried by the breeze. "You seek something, do you… stranger?"

By the cliffside he was a shadow against the bright sea and sky, waiting among the flowers of Persephone’s meadow. As pale as marble his skin was, mantled by pure black that split aside and left bare his sculpted shoulders and chest. In tufts of windswept, white hair sat his jagged crown of dark, brittle stone. When he turned, he did so with unthought of grace. His face unlike all other features looked young, and carefully guarded.

Before he would speak, Persephone rest a finger to his cold lips. And pressed his back to the earth.

The robes he wore darkly draped among the crocuses and violets. Persephone’s thighs darkly draped his slim waist that belied innately tremendous strength. His beautiful, sharp eyes, ghostly frosted by white lashes and gray as pewter, seized on a plea. Seized on Persephone.

"I understand…"

From the underground roads, through a hidden crack in the rocks yet discovered, he had emerged from his kingdom of cold dim caverns in quiet yearning of a warmer one. Persephone gathered his own goldenrod robes below his girdle, and mounted perfection.

"Persephone—"

The first to break the illusion, as ever. "So you know me." Persephone smiled, teasing the veil off their play. "Come… tell me what it was that made you recall my name?"

Brown fingers curled over the pale, tight abdomen above the place where they joined. That was not the answer given, though. "Must be your beauty…" His lips were ice, but the murmured breath blew with the first hint of warmth as it skimmed and collected from the inner, glowing conviction rooted in the depths of his self. "No one but Persephone could possess it."

Too brief was time for these visitations. In vain did Persephone desire his splendid meadow be more than an inn visited for a moment of respite for this weary soul. No matter what role had been ordained, the other belonged here, with Persephone.

If that could not be, then Persephone with him.

"Yes… yes, I am your Persephone. But please, call me as my other name. What name shall I call you, my lord of so many—"

"Cloud," he gasped, "Just Cloud."

 _Cloud,_ repeated with all the nectar of the meadow poured into the name.

 _Andrea,_ Cloud answered, unintentionally dripping all his worship into his. Andrea happily accepted such a valuable tribute.

The frigid cold to his skin melted as they rut, and below Andrea his color bloomed, radiant in his hair turned from pale silver to true gold, the transformation like watching the morning sun stretch across a field of wheat. His gray eyes were astonishingly as green, as blue, as iridescent as the shifting sea.

A vision of beauty, himself.

Andrea swayed, riding elegantly the quake as strong as the violent earth's beneath him. Cloud's seed like ichor spilled, and spilled, until he was spent, a wilted flower pressed beneath Andrea. Without unseating, Andrea lay further upon him until their faces hovered near but a scant distance.

"I shall accompany you this time, back to—"

"No," Hades answered, touch already growing forlorn and deathly cold along Andrea’s cheek. "Never."

The most stubborn being Andrea ever knew. More stubborn than a weed, he mused.

He would never understand what Cloud so feared until he saw this kingdom below the earth for himself. And in doing so, dash this worry against the rocks. For with these expressions of true beauty between them, from such a secretive and lonesome heart, he never, never wanted Cloud to be afraid.


	2. in the halls of the underworld

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _A drifting bee of Persephone’s alighted on the bone of Cloud’s finger, lifted high for a place to land._
> 
> _"Go back to him. Your home is the meadow. Not here."_
> 
> _The soft creature fluttered its wings again to rise, dancing slowly before Cloud’s face. A language its own, one Cloud didn’t understand, but was charmed by. Persephone had once told,_ Any can speak it. One just needs to know how to move. _Rising from where they'd laid in the sun, he'd swayed a slow translation, his robes brushing petals while his ankles glided effortlessly between stems._

A drifting bee of Persephone’s alighted on the bone of Cloud’s finger, lifted high for a place to land.

"Go back to him. Your home is the meadow. Not here."

The soft creature fluttered its wings again to rise, dancing slowly before Cloud’s face. A language its own, one Cloud didn’t understand, but was charmed by. Persephone had once told, _Any can speak it. One just needs to know how to move._ Rising from where they'd laid in the sun, he'd swayed a slow translation, his robes brushing petals while his ankles glided effortlessly between stems.

_An expression of the heart, you see. Come._

_I don’t dance, Andrea._

Persephone had laughed, deeply, holding the shape of Cloud’s hips while sitting again upon them. Persephone's thighs were as warm as the sun. _I think you do._

The bee floated away, its quiet buzz of flight swallowed in the rush of a wave crashing to the cliffside. Cloud chanced one more look at the frothy, salty mass of sea. At the vault of sky bright with the sun, and the mountainous plumes. Before he turned to the largest crack in the rock, splitting it open upon his downward scraping touch. One secret road of many under the earth that returned him to his misty and cold kingdom.

He could feel the chill of stone beneath his hand stronger than warmth, and knew as he stepped into cavern and shadow that his hair was fading as palely as his skin once more. His natural state. Cold, and unfeeling. These visits above could not change him of that. 

Black, craggy rock became true smooth obsidian walls the further Cloud descended. Further, the cavern opened wide, giving space to his palace. Not as despairing in color as everything. Its high halls were veined by gold. A cold trace of the sun, down in the dark. 

Cloud’s bare feet brushed softly on the stone floor as he retreated to the banquet hall he always did when he returned. A long and empty table had a single bowl set before the head chair. The bowl contained rich red pomegranate arils.

Even when they’d just parted, Cloud ate the fruit upon his return to savor their moment together. The honey-sweet burst of taste it brought to Cloud’s tongue reminded him of Persephone, his meadow, and his… 

Persephone sat in the chair, leaning with forearms crossed on his robe-covered knee, a handful of seeds in the cup of his palm. "Welcome, Cloud."

"Andrea?" In disbelief, Persephone’s other name slipped from his tongue. "How did you—" The bee. Cloud cursed.

He watched Andrea pluck a seed from his hand and bring it to his lips. The swing of his wrist was habitual, as was the part of his mouth. As though he’d hardly taken his first bite.

The stone shock made a statue of Cloud. To his own ears, his voice became a distant echo.

"What have you done…?"

"What I had to. Since you insist we can't remain together." Andrea took another bite and the spell on Cloud was broken. Cloud stepped forward, down the length of the table, until he stood above Andrea sitting.

" _Why?_ Why would you— _"_ Andrea leaned to the back of the chair, a smile in the corner of his mouth. He was beautiful. His dark skin, his poise, his perfume. So close, again. Everything of his enthralling presence stronger in such dreariness. Cloud’s hands clenched futilely by his sides. 

"I am Hades. King of the dead. And you are—"

"Your Persephone."

Cloud shook his pale head. "No. You are — radiant. You belong in your meadow. Joyfully gathering your flowers. Dancing with your bees. Not here, in coldness and darkness. I won’t have you forsake that for me. What I have is nothing. I am king, but _who_ I am is n—"

Andrea stood, and silenced Cloud with a familiar touch on his lips. Cloud frowned under it, still as Andrea moved his finger away.

Slowly, he turned them, until Cloud pressed the back of the chair. Andrea draped himself across Cloud’s lap, his arms encircling Cloud’s shoulders, after he removed Cloud's brittle crown and set it delicately beside the bowl of pomegranate. 

Cloud’s hands, gradually, gravitated toward Andrea. Like flowers lifting their heads toward the sun. He rest his forehead to the soft warmth of Andrea’s bust, his following words a rasp.

"I won’t — be an unseemly husband to you."

"No," said Andrea, his hand sliding to cradle Cloud’s cheek, to raise his eyes back up. "You couldn’t be. You couldn’t be, Cloud."

Cloud, his eyes fixed on Andrea, solemnly vowed, "While you are here, you will be queen of everything. I swear by the Styx."

Andrea's hum was a content song. "I approve."

**Author's Note:**

> @highfivestrife (nsfw)


End file.
